Rosenhan (1973) Flashcards
what was the aim of the research?
to test the reliability and validity of psychological diagnosis and wether nurses in a psychiatric hospital can spot the sane from insane.
what type of study was this?
Covert Observational study when they were inside the hospital. When getting a diagnosis it was considered a field experiment as the psychologists were in their natural setting.
what was the IV and DV
IV - the symptoms that the PPTs showed
DV - if the PPTs got admitted
what is the sample?
8 pseudo-patients - all had their names and occupations changed. 3 women, 5 men. One psychology student, 3 psychologists, a paediatrician, a painter and a housewife.
what was the procedure?
the patients went to 12 different psychiatric hospitals around the USA in 5 different states, they reported symptoms of hearing voices that said ‘empty’ ‘hollow’ ‘thud’ (these are not a symptom of any mental illness).
after being admitted they stopped any display of symptoms and they acted as they usually would. PPTs would take notes of some of the actions that the nurses would make.
what were the findings of Rosenhans first study?
The nurses failed to find any of the pseudo patients and did not realise they were sane, any actions they showed such as when they took notes were labelled as note taking activities and seen as symptoms of SZ that they were diagnosed with. It took an average of 19 days for the PPTs to get out of the hospital and the range of days that the PPTs stayed was 7 - 52 days. To get discharged they had to admit they were insane and take medicine (2000 pills were disposed of), when they were finally discharged they were said to have SZ ‘in remission’.
what were the conclusions of the study?
He concluded that the reliability and validity of psychological diagnosis was weak and that it needed reforming. This study was made when the DSM 2 was published so this study showed that it was not reliable.
